When I was a kid, I knew an old guy who told me that at one time, every small entity had their own power plant. Towns and cities, farms and apartment buildings ran their own generating plants. Most of that ended when the power grid appeared, undercutting the costs of running your own generating plant in most cases.
But did we expect that the grid would become a monopoly? Are the big power plants the only game in town? Not so much, I think anymore. Granted, it's still very expensive to set up your own power generation, and the grid is still cost-competitive, but for how much longer? Should the power companies be allowed to continue exploiting their monopolies?
I think technology is making it easier and easier to manage electrical power, and perhaps a cooperative sharing grid is the way of the future, minus the monopolies.